"Are these the Links o’ Forth, she said,
Or are they Crooks o’ Dee,
Or the bonnie wood o’ Warroch-head
That I sae fain wad see?"

In very distant times Stirling formed the boundary of the great Nemus Caledonia, or Caledonian Forest, which was an insuperable barrier against Roman invasion. And at this day the ancient Seal of the Burgh of Stirling shows a Forest, supposed to be this Scottish Wood, together with a Cross, explained as signifying the great Cross set up at the Castle, and a Bridge emblematical of the Bridge of Forth, both of which erections were due to the Northumbian invasion in 855, at which time the Castle changed hands. Tradition asserts that from the Castle the intelligent observer may descry thirteen battle-fields, among which may be mentioned Bannockburn, Sauchie Burn, Falkirk (twice), Sherifimuir, and Stirling Bridge. It is evident that a locality such as this must be rich in historic lore; and the Castle of Stirling has been the scene of many deeds of crime, of many revelries and pageants, only equalled by Edinburgh, the Capital of Scotland. Some of these incidents may be related, even though they are not placed in chronological order.

The Castle of Stirling had been conferred by James I. upon his English bride, Lady Joanna de Beaufort—the heroine of "The King’s Quhair "—as her dowry, and it was here that her son, afterwards James II., was born in 1430, being the younger twin-son of the King, the elder of whom, Alexander, died in infancy. Some of the chroniclers state that the birth of the twins took place at Holyrood; but possibly this may be an error caused by the anointing and crowning there of James II. in 1437, a year after his father’s assassination at Perth. This may be doubtful; but it is certain that the King (James II.), in Febnary 1451-52, perpetrated at Stirling one of the blackest deeds of treachery which is recorded against the whole Stewart race to which he belonged.

From the time of King Robert the Bruce the family of Douglas, whose founder was the fellow-warrior of that King, had been rising into increased power. Honours were showered upon them by successive Monarchs—at first in gratitude but latterly in fear. For the dominion of the Douglases spread so widely, and drew within its scope so many warlike nobles that the Lanarkshire Earl might soon out-number the Crown in wealth, as in forces. As it was impossible, therefore, for the King to quarrel with so powerful a subject, he endeavoured to win the Earl over by making him Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. But the possession of so important a post seems rather to have inflamed the ambition of the Earl than bound him to the King. So overbearing, indeed, had he become that the Monarch, whose favourite Douglas had been, was compelled to withdraw the Royal patronage, and to deprive the Earl of his post. The disappointed nobleman retired in chagrin to his Castle of Douglas and meditated schemes of revenge against the King and the Court party.

Nor was he long without opportunity of gratifying his vindictive spirit. One after another of the King’s followers were attacked upon some pretext, sufficient in those times to justify sudden reprisal; and the Monarch soon found that he had made a dangerous enemy in the Earl of Douglas. But it was not until he had openly disregarded the King’s mandate that he was finally abandoned. The Earl had summoned his vassals to meet him upon a special occasion. Amongst those whom he had thus summoned was M’Lellan, known as the Tutor of Bomby, in Kirkcudbrightshire. This unfortunate man had provoked the Earl by refusing to join with him against the King; and Douglas had kidnapped this daring vassal, and carried him off to the Castle of Thrieve. The uncle of M’Lellan, Sir Patrick Gray, Captain of the King’s Guard—then a favourite with the King—obtained a Royal mandate ordering Douglas to release M’Lellan.

Sir Patrick set forth with this missive, but was met by the Earl with every demonstration of amity, inviting him to dinner, and protracting the meal till his own evil purpose had been accomplished. Then he led Gray into the courtyard; he pointed to a dead body lying there, and said:

"Sir Patrick, the letter which you bear comes too late. There lies your sister’s son, without his head. To his body thou art welcome, an’ it please thee to mell with it." -

"Nay," said Sir Patrick, "sen thou hast ta’en the head, make what thou wilt of the body; for thou shalt answer shortly to the King for both." And mounting in hot haste, Gray sped to Edinburgh to report this outrage, pursued by the myrmidons of Douglas.

The recital of this new attack upon his kingly prerogative decided the King to adopt severe measures against the Earl of Douglas; but he took a crafty method of doing so.

Having discovered that Douglas, who ruled in the south, had agreed with the Earl of Ross, who was all-powerful in the north, and the Earl of Crawford, whose influence spread throughout the east coast, to maintain each others quarrels, even against the King himself, his Majesty, fearful of the conspiracy, summoned his Parliament to Stirling to advise upon it. After deliberation, it was decided to bring Douglas to this conference, and to endeavour by argument to break this alliance. A safe conduct, under the hand and Seal of the King, was sent to him requesting his attendance. Trusting to the honour of his liege-lord, Douglas approached with but a few adherents, and even those were excluded from the precincts of the royal palace.

Alone, therefore, the Black Earl entered that portal through which he never more should pass. The King met him with accustomed cordiality, and, after supper, retired with him and a few of his counsellors to an inner apartment to discuss the affairs of State. Here James thought to persuade Douglas to abandon his league with the Earls Ross and Crawford; but threat and persuasion were alike powerless upon him. Irritated beyond measure by this continued obstinacy, and well aware of the result of too great leniency towards him, the King at last drew his dagger, and exclaiming "By Heaven, if you will not break this league, I will," he stabbed the unfortunate Earl to the heart. The old enemy of Douglas, Sir Patrick Gray, with all the bitterness of his last grudge against him, was not slow to aid the King in his felon intent, and the body of the murdered nobleman was thrown from the window of that apartment in the Castle which is still called "the Douglas Room."

However disreputable the means employed, it is certain that the step which the King had taken ultimately compelled him to adopt repressive measures against the Scottish nobility, and finally to overcome and destroy the long-established feudal system. And, as a curious instance of historical retribution, it may be mentioned that the murder of James III. (son of James II.) at Sauchie Burn, was popularly attributed to the son of this same Sir Patrick Gray, the King’s accomplice in his attack upon the Earl of Douglas.

Many additions were made to the Castle during the turbulent reign of James III., who made it his favourite residence. He built the large hall, now called the Parliament House, and erected the Chapel Royal, celebrated in song by the poets of the period; which was afterwards demolished by James VI. to make way for a more pretentious structure. There is little doubt that the violent death of James III. was immediately caused by the treachery of the Castellane whom he had put in charge of Stirling, and who refused to open the gate to the King while in retreat.

During the reign of James V., Stirling was the scene of a very ludicrous scientific fiasco. The reputation which the King had gained on the Continent as a lover of literature and art had attracted many foreign adventurers to the Scottish shore. Poets, musicians, and alchemists flocked to the Court whose Monarch laid claim to a wide sympathy with the art of each professor; and as the craze of the search after the "philosopher’s stone" was not yet exploded, King James fell an easy prey to charlatanry and imposture. Chief among the alchemists that had gained an ascendancy over the King was an Italian monk, who so dazzled his dupe by unlimited promises that nothing was withheld from him. He was made Abbot of Tungland, and assigned apartments in the Castle that he might pursue his Rosicrucian studies unmolested.

That this monk was neither a Dowsterswivel nor a Subtle, may be surmised from the fact that he so far believed in his power as to experiment on himself. Having made aerial flight his study for a considerable time, he at last announced that he had solved the problem which had perplexed mankind till his day. He invited a large company to witness his triumph over gravitation; and having mounted the battlements of the Castle he boldly flung himself from the parapet. But he had miscalculated the attractive influence of our planet upon him. And so the astonished multitude, who expected to see him cleaving with mighty wings the blue empyreum, were shocked and dismayed to behold him falling like some ordinary mortal earthward, unable, even with the aid of all his familiar spirits, to escape the broken limb which the most illiterate lord might have as easily gained, without bravado.

One cannot but admire the pluck which led the Abbot to make this rash experiment, and the ingenuity with which he explained his failure. "Many of the feathers," he wrote, "whereof my wings were composed had been unwittingly taken from barnyard and dunghill fowls. Hence the earth had more influence upon them since they were unused to upward flight. Had they been eagles’ feathers then the attraction of the heavens would have been as great as the attraction of the earth was in other conditions." There is no record of his ever having tried aviation afterwards.

For a considerable time the Castle of Stirling was selected as the place of Coronation for the Scottish rulers, and the fact of its being a favourite residence for royalty brought it into notice as the birth-place of a succession of monarchs, and it was also the scene of several tragedies connected with the royal family. Some of the latter incidents may be briefly noticed here.

Alexander I., who reigned from 1106 till 1124 is the first Scottish King who is recorded as having died at Stirling. William the Lion— 1165-1214——died at Stirling in his 71st year. David, second son of Alexander III., born in 1273, died in Stirling Castle in 1281, aged 8 years, and as his elder brother Alexander died in his father’s life-time, the succession fell to Margaret, "the Maid of Norway," whose death in 1290 brought about the trouble with the claimants, in which Edward I. of England interfered. While James I. was a prisoner in England, his uncle Robert, Duke of Albany, was Governor from 1388 till 1420, in which year he died at Stirling Castle. His son, Murdoch, became Governor, but when James I. returned to his kingdom in 1424, he accused Murdoch of treason, and caused him to be beheaded at Stirling Castle in the following year, together with his son, his nephew, and his father-in-law. James IV., in 1488, when he was only 16 years of age, was brought from Stirling Castle by the Lords, who had rebelled against his father, James III., and was present at the Battle of Sauchie Burn, near Stirling, where the King was assassinated. Alexander, Duke of Ross, sixth child of James IV., was born in Stirling Castle, and died there in 1515 in his second year. Prince James and Prince Arthur, sons of James V., both died in infancy at Stirling Castle, in 1541, thus leaving the succession to the Throne open to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was born in 1542, the year of her father’s death. She was crowned in the Chapel at Stirling Castle in September 1543. The year 1571 witnessed a series of tragic incidents. John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, was accused as concerned in the murders of Henry Darnley and also the Regent Moray, and was hanged at Stirling Castle. The Regent Lennox, father of Darnley, was shot in a skirmish at Stirling; his successor, the Regent Mar, died at Stirling Castle in 1572. James VI. was baptized in the Chapel of Stirling Castle in 1566; and his beloved eldest son, Prince Henry, was born in the Castle in 1593, but died in 1612 in his 19th year, and thus the King was succeeded by his second son and fourth child, afterwards Charles I. These are all facts relating to the connection of the Royal Family with Stirling Castle.

The Union of the Crown in 1603, when the King and Court removed to London, had an important effect upon the whole of Scotland, and especially on Stirling Castle. The place fell out of notice for a considerable time, and until the great Marquess of Montrose restored the renown of Scottish chivalry its existence was placid and uneventful. The brilliant exploits of this famous commander brought renown to Scotland; and during the century which followed, the position of Stirling Castle as the key to the north by the east coast made it a scene of continued turmoil and strife. Stirling Castle was captured and held for a short time by the Covenanters. In 1651, after the defeat of General Leslie and the Covenanters at Dunbar by Cromwell, the fugitive Scots made Stirling Castle their rallying-place. This led General Monck to besiege and reduce the Castle, and to carry off many of the national documents that had been brought from Edinburgh as less secure than Stirling. It was from the Castle in the same year that Charles II. set out upon his invasion of England, which was terminated by the fatal Battle of Worcester.

At the time of the Union of the Parliaments in 1707 Stirling was one of the four Castles that were specially described as the most important in Scotland. The first trial of its strength occurred in 1715, when Argyll on his way to Sheriffmuir was well-supported from the Castle. The next attempt on the Castle was in 1745-46, when the army under Prince Charles Edward was retreating northward. The leaders of the Highland forces promised the Stirling people would not be molested; but this pledge was not respected by the Jacobites, and general plunder was the result. Preparations were made to besiege the Castle; but the conflict at Falkirk, where the Prince was victorious, led to the prolongation of the siege (against the will of Prince Charlie) until the advance of the Duke of Cumberland’s army compelled a retreat northward, which ended at Culloden. Since that time Stirling Castle has remained unassailed.

James VI. was the last Scottish Sovereign to live in residence at Stirling Castle. The Duke of of York (afterwards James VIII. and II.) was here with his family for a short time in 1685, amongst them being the daughter who became Queen Anne. In September 1842, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the place; and in 1859, the Prince of Wales (afterwards Edward VII.) examined the historic Castle, so closely connected with the lives of his remote ancestors.